Residents Request More Police Bangor Council Is Asked To Beef Up Protection

August 11, 1998|by FRED WALTER (A free-lance story for The Morning Call)

Bangor Council should hire more police to keep up with vandals, speeders and loiterers.

That was the message Monday night from former Councilman Ed Fishler and resident Carol Messinger.

"We pay taxes for everything else in this town; we might as well pay for police," Messinger said.

Fishler said each shift should always have at least one backup officer in case there's more than one incident at the same time.

He said loiterers in the downtown business area and speeding on local streets remain ongoing problems.

Park Director Steve Zavacky said police are also dealing with more vandalism at Bangor Memorial Park during the summer.

He said the swimming pool had to be closed Monday to clean up broken glass in and around the pool. Nightime vandals, he said, threw beer bottles over the fenced-in pool area from an adjacent parking lot. The pool will reopen today.

Police Chief Don Gillingham said most of the time two officers cover one shift, but there are gaps if one is sick or on vacation.

A replacement is also being sought for Sgt. Ralph Falcone, who retired last month.

The police force has six full-time and four-time officers.

Gillingham said some officers work overtime, but he tries to control that cost.

"We do make a lot of arrests, but we can only do so much," Gillingham said. "We take the most important call first."

Mayor Robert Janus said police will target streets with enforcement units where drivers ignore the speed limit of 25 mph on borough streets and 35 mph on state roads. He said that may require payment of overtime.